While everyone is excited about the one-year countdown to London 2012 all of
our focus is on the Pre-Olympic Regatta.

I am writing this column from a hotel just off the M4 where I am holed up with the rest of the British pre-Olympic sailing team on a team-building exercise.

We celebrated the ‘year to go’ last night with a few quiet beers. It has become something of a tradition down the years, before major international events, to go away for a few days to relax; play a bit of golf, bond as a group.

We have a laugh but you won’t be reading about us driving golf buggies down the motorway at 3am.

And with good reason. While everyone is excited about the fact that the one-year countdown to London 2012 has now officially begun, we cannot afford to look that far ahead. All of our focus is on the Pre-Olympic Regatta in Weymouth, which begins on Sunday.

This is basically a full-on dummy run for the main event next summer; a chance for us to evaluate where we are in comparison to our international rivals and for the organisers to test the facilities and so on.

The event is particularly significant because it will be the first time that we will not be competing against each other within the British team.

Up until now we have been scrapping tooth and nail to be the one pick allowed per class per country. And considering the fact that Britain has five of the world’s top 10 in my class, the Finn, it has been a particularly gruelling process.

Thankfully I was able to win the Sail For Gold regatta last month, a significant step in terms of qualification, but the process is still not entirely over and I need to perform in the Pre-Olympics to make sure I get the selectors’ nod. Giles Scott and Ed Wright have been pushing me hard.

The ‘year-to-go’ mark has certainly brought everything into much sharper focus; the hype is starting to build, the media coverage intensifying, the PR demands increasing.

It is great to see sailing making the news but at the same time this aspect of the sport is something that has always frustrated me.

Like many other Olympic disciplines, sailing has a tendency to be almost entirely overlooked by the wider world once the Games are over.

I can understand that because it is difficult to follow, whether live or on TV. It is confusing to the casual observer.

In football or cricket you know when someone has played a blinder. With sailing most people have no idea what the competitors are up to or how much skill they are exhibiting on the water.

Plus, there are so many different classes and categories, from solo around-the-world ocean racing to inland dinghy racing. No league to follow. No regular fix.

I’ve seen it happen four times already — in Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and Beijing. The interest builds and then just as quickly dies down.

I’m hoping that having a home Games will make the difference and this time we will retain more than just a passing interest although I’m not sure how.

Do we need to be more colourful as individuals? Grow our hair long and get caught driving golf buggies down the M4? Perhaps we should try to develop the televisual side of the sport to make it more appealing and easier to follow?

That is what they are trying to do with the America’s Cup with the switch to super-fast multihulls and good luck to them. Although I’m not a massive fan of the rule change I really hope it proves successful because it might provide a template for other types of sailing.

All I know is that the next year represents a massive opportunity for sailing in this country and we must capitalise on it.

We must get the message out there that the sport is far more accessible than people think.

The classic response is ‘oh, I don’t live by the sea’, but in fact most sailing at a basic level takes place on lakes and reservoirs. Ellen MacArthur famously grew up in the middle of Derbyshire.

We must get the point across that it is a myth that you need to be from a privileged background to have a go.

Down where we compete in Weymouth you can ‘Sail for a Fiver’ and there are similar schemes up and down the country. Give it a try. You won’t regret it.

In the meantime, I’m going to concentrate all my energies on Weymouth and the regatta over the next fortnight.

It may be only a warm-up event but I always race to win and I will be gutted if I don’t. The Pre-Olympics represent another opportunity to lay down a marker; to get inside my opponents’ heads. The real Games are still a year away, but the race for glory never ends.